Olney breaks down 7 different reasons for why the stolen base is seeing declining numbers over the past few seasons. Reasons #1 and #2 are the most obvious of course, with the long ball diminishing the need for a player to take an extra 90 feet and for the prolonged hand injuries incurred as a result of slamming into 2nd base (think Mike Trout last year). All these reasons make sense.

But it’s disappointing. If baseball continues its trend toward home runs and strikeouts, games will rid themselves of the fast-paced action that drive fans to buy tickets. The 90 foot stolen base is one of the most exciting plays in baseball and one of the most effective, if executed. I hope a manager comes along and reinvents the wheel — like they’ve done with defensive alignments — in the near future.

I was going to write a long schpeel about how “news” is the one aspect of my digital life that doesn’t have an affordable subscription for unlimited consumption. TV shows and movies are covered by Netflix. Music is covered by Apple Music. But news? There’s no appropriate option.

Then I remembered everyone else in the world has Apple News,1 which is offered for free on every single iPhone and iPad. And then I remembered that Canada still does not have access to Apple News.

If you could see me right now, I’m rolling my eyes and shaking my head.

Rebecca Lily’s artist features never cease to amaze. If you’re looking for inspiration or aspects of a different photographer’s skill-set to emulate, you’re sure to find something (or someone) in these features.

For many young Canadians — who are heavily reliant on their parents — what awaits them after graduation is an unreliable job market with seasonal contracts, zero benefits and expensive housing costs.

Many graduates leaving university take unpaid internships, temporary work or minimum wage employment, which make tackling their debt extremely challenging and in some circumstances impossible.

Governments in Canada have taken steps to make student debt easier to pay off by increasing to $25,000 the minimum annual income that graduates must earn before they are required to start making payments towards their debt.

But the current Liberal government has still been forced to write off $200 million dollars in outstanding student loans on which it will never be able to collect.

There are days when I’m ashamed to be associated with the millennial generation. In general, my generation reacts instinctively and immediately to any situation, resulting in this ideological rationale that makes us feel like we’re fighting the forces of evil. In reality, I fear we make more concessions than headway in the good fight.

But then there are articles like Anissa’s where I’m proud to be a millennial. The idea that millennials are spoiled and entitled is utter nonsense. In general, we have had to work harder than our parents ever did to get a start. The Baby Boomer generation had no major post-secondary education requirements to enter the work force, no free-labour internships to gain experience to enter the work force, and no part-time contracts with zero benefits to enter the work force. We grew up in the high standards of living set by the Baby Boomer generation, sure, which leads to a different set of expectations. But to say we as a generation are lazy and entitled is disillusioned.

Combine the standard of living expectations with 8 to 10 years of free labour to gain the skills required to enter the work force,2 and you come up with enormous mounds of student loan debt. It’s not a hard equation to come up with.

Three More Articles Worth Your Time

This is essentially Federico’s workflow from a few weeks ago applied to the upcoming Drafts 5 beta. It works quite well.

How Two Photographers Unknowingly Shot the Same Millisecond in Time — PetaPixel

It’s almost freaky how close these two images are. The article is less about comparing the two images as it is explaining how sensor size and focal lengths can result in the same image from two entirely different spots.

As Nick Heer pointed out this week on Pixel Envy, Manjoo didn’t really unplug from Twitter — he tweeted nearly 1,000 times in the 2 month hiatus he claims to have taken. Take that how you may.

Whatever the case, the fact that news — quality news and quality journalism — continues to be so expensive to consume is part of the issue we face in today’s social networking world. Like any dollar store item, cheap and free news is almost always exactly that: cheap and free. Proper journalism, as everyone has pointed out, costs money and takes time.

“Expensive” doesn’t have to apply to just money. “Expensive” can be applied to time as well. It’s an expensive transaction to devote a segment of each day to reading a newspaper. Rather than being bombarded by a feed of your own choosing, you have to sift through each paper to find and read the pieces that catch your attention. You can’t just headline consume.

I look forward to the day when our media and journalism industries get reinvented.

After coming across a few tweets, I was reminded to catch up on the last few episodes of Disney/Lucasfilm’s animated show.

Star Wars Rebels, although definitely oriented towards the younger viewer, has provided more back story to the current Star Wars universe than any live-action movie. The character development and plot lines weave in and out of the original trilogy storylines, and the result is a story that leaves you wondering where the heroes ended up within the original films.

I’m a particular fan of how Rebels writers developed Grand Admiral Thrawn. Thrawn is the most cunning villain in any Star Wars show and he rarely takes a misstep.

There are a few kiddish episodes, I will admit. But if you’re a Star Wars fan, there are more than a few nuggets in the Star Wars Rebels four seasons.

That’s a longer one this week. Hope you enjoy.

Happy Sunday. All the best in the week ahead.

Obviously I’m exaggerating here for irony and effect — I’m quite aware Apple News is limited to only a few countries. Still, why Canada is not on that list is beyond me. Perhaps it’s something to do with our French language requirements? ↩

I feel somewhat qualified to say something in this regard — I turn 27 years old this year and I’m still attending post-secondary school. I’ve attended some sort of post-secondary program every year since I left high school at the age of 18. And I have at least 2 or 3 years to go. It’s a never-ending cycle, and I quite resent the idea that I’m spoiled or entitled because I’m part of the millennial generation. ↩